2 And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.



3 And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.



Ver. 3. And beat him] Properly, they hild (tanned) him; but by a metonymy, {a} they beat him. Sic percutimus vulpem, ut pellis ei detrahatur; so men beat a fox that they may the better skin him. ( Äåñù proprie excorio, pellem detraho. Gerhard.)



{a} A figure of speech which consists in substituting for the name of a thing the name of an attribute of it or of something closely related. ŒD